CORRECTIONS
An article in Friday’s issue on the effects of the government shutdown misspelled the name of Mirim Yoo ’16. The article also misidentified an MIT Course 1E senior (Class of 2014) as an alumna.
Zoidberg says
As I type this article on Monday morning, a government shutdown seems inevitable. In a little under 18 hours, barring a congressional Hail Mary, legislative intransigence will mean the shutdown of the National Parks, freeze on pay for troops, and furloughs of governmental employees.
The day after tomorrow, today
It’s time that we at MIT have a serious conversation about climate change. The simple fact — which we all know but seem to avoid thinking about — is that the consequences of climate change are already happening, and will get a lot worse during our own lifetimes.
CORRECTIONS
An article in Tuesday’s issue on the Burton-Conner mural controversy misquoted Akhil Raju ’14. He said, “About half the students I talked to didn’t like [the posters],” not the murals.
Why the Career Fair, like MIT, is unique
The Sept. 20’s issue of The Tech featured a front-page article suggesting that participation fees for organizations to recruit at MIT’s Fall Career Fair contributed to a lack of balanced recruiter representation and that fees were unreasonably high when compared to peer institutions. While participation fees at the Career Fair are higher than peers, the article failed to investigate how the Career Fair differs significantly from our peers and is uniquely modeled to add value in supporting student life at MIT. Furthermore the article did not properly recognize that all campus-wide recruiting initiatives — including those of the GECD-Career Services and at other schools across the country — also see extensive Course 6 recruitment and face similar challenges attracting balanced representation.
Identifying the concerns
In the controversy surrounding murals in Burton-Conner, it seems that the undergraduates and the housemasters are separately debating two very different concerns: one is focusing on the applications of Title IX and the MIT Mind and Hand Book, and the other on the lack of effective communication.
For science’s sake, emphasize the scientific method
Like most members of the MIT community, I am aghast by the large fraction of the U.S. population that does not believe in climate change, the theory of evolution, or the age of the universe.
Burton-Conner housemaster response to front page photo of ‘postering’
I write in my capacity as the Housemaster of Burton-Conner to respond to the campaign of retaliation that began on Sunday night Sept. 22 and was continued by your publication in The Tech on Friday, Sept. 27 of a poster indicating that Burton-Conner was “subject to legalese and scare tactics” because “Students [were] attempting to communicate.” This poster and related ones were posted throughout Burton-Conner and in buildings across campus on or about Sept. 22/23, by a group that identified itself as “Concerned Connerside,” but reportedly involved students from many parts of campus. “Legalese and scare tactics” must refer to my raising a Title IX concern, since that was the only rationale given, and repeatedly, by MIT for removing certain murals and graffiti from the walls of Burton-Conner.
The posters regarding BC murals are troubling
The recent postering campaign, prominent in the building where the Concourse program is located and highlighted in a front-page Tech photograph last week, is deeply troubling. This campaign, which targets those who removed murals and graffiti at Burton-Conner which were inconsistent with the Title IX prohibition against sexually harassing environments, is fueled by a knee-jerk outrage that fails to understand how problematic the murals and graffiti were under Title IX. The effect has been to undermine the free speech the campaign purports to honor by fostering an environment in which open discussion of the grounds for covering over the mural is inhibited.
The ‘how,’ ‘what,’ and ‘why’ of reporting hazing
For MIT students, this is an exciting time of year. Friends who have spent the summer months apart are reunited, living groups and student groups are reinvigorated by the influx of the excited freshmen, and classes have been in session for just a couple weeks. Additional highlights of the start of the school year for many are Fraternity Rush and Sorority Recruitment. While I’ve previously documented my views that Fraternity Rush is unfair to the dormitories and should be moved to IAP, there is no denying that fraternities (and sororities) do a lot of good for the wider community and the individual members.
CORRECTIONS
A caption and an article in Tuesday’s issue on MIT’s new Innovation Initiative misspelled Phillip A. Sharp’s name.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
On August 7, 2013, Artem Krasnoslobodtsev wrote a letter to The Tech in which he attempted to apologize to the MIT community and to those whom he had hurt in 2007. At that time, he sent an email to the Sloan LBGT Group insulting them for being LBGT and threatening their lives. The Committee on Discipline cut him some slack and placed him on probation: if he had one more infraction, he would have been expelled.
An illusory trade-off
In Friday’s issue of The Tech, Madeline O’Grady ’16 asserts that MIT students should be “better than the career fair.” Instead of settling for comfortable, lucrative jobs with corporations, she writes, we should aspire to solve the world’s most challenging problems.
Why the career fair is a disappointment
When I applied to MIT in 2012, I pictured a brilliant haven filled with talented, driven, and passionate young people, striving to learn and apply their knowledge to solve the world’s greatest problems. Across this square mile of Cambridge, I pictured ten thousand minds working toward global improvement, and an institute that wants nothing more than to see its students facilitate change. At the time, being able to join this community seemed like a remote possibility.
CORRECTIONS
An article in Tuesday’s issue about the t=0 entrepreneurship conference incorrectly referred to the organizer as the “Martin Center for Entrepreneurship at MIT.” It is the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship.
Facing the truth: animal research
Almost every MIT student has conducted a scientific experiment on an animal — ranging from dissecting a frog in middle school to studying the behavior of conditionally trained mice in a UROP. At some point, many of us have probably found ourselves questioning the ethics of using animals for research. Though I was vaguely aware of this debate, it wasn’t until I took my first Institute lab that I finally understood the purpose of using animals in scientific pursuit.
MIT needs computer science requirement
Programming lies at the heart of a modern education. Whether it relates to engineering, finance, or even the arts and humanities, computation is used across all fields to achieve what was once unimaginable. Yet, despite its ever-increasing prominence in industry and research, MIT has not instituted introductory computer science as a General Institute Requirement (GIR).
UNDER GOD:
From our first day of kindergarten in the United States, we are expected to recite daily those 31 words which solemnly declare our fidelity to the nation we call home: “I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
When a leader should follow
At MIT, we pride ourselves on our various environmental and energy initiatives, from campus design to course offerings to groundbreaking research in numerous fields. Our greatest strength as an institution is our position as a world leader in science and technology. In the past, research from MIT has led to advances in green technologies, such as the development of ultracapacitors and novel liquid batteries for energy storage. Our values, as expressed in our research targets, have produced great strides in our society’s transition to more sustainable behaviors.
CORRECTIONS
An article in Friday’s issue on arts opportunities using the MIT ID mistakenly indicated that the $5 BSO College Card could be purchased at the BSO Ticket Office and MIT CopyTech in 11-003. It can only be purchased at CopyTech.